One Effective Use For QR Codes: Dentist Reviews
Date: December 19, 2012Category: Author: Michael Brinson
When is the last time you made a purchasing decision without first searching for and reading at least a few reviews of the product in question?
If you’re old enough to remember the days when there was no Internet, then perhaps you can answer that question with a specific date. If, on the other hand, you’re from the generation that has grown up with the World Wide Web at your fingertips then most likely the answer to that question is – Never.
Now here’s the more important question. When is the last time you did NOT make a purchase because you couldn’t even find any reviews? Maybe you only buy name brand items and so you’ve never run into this problem. Even if that describes your experience, it should still be clearly evident that having good reviews is CRUCIAL to convincing potential customers to buy your product or service.
As a dentist, it’s obvious that an important aspect to good dental internet marketing is to get as many good reviews as possible from your current patients so that your future patients can see why they should buy your service. Therefore, it is vitally important to provide an easy way for your current patients to provide reviews of their experience with your practice.
That’s where QR codes come in. These “Quick Response” codes can have a huge impact on the number of reviews you get from your patients. How? To understand that, it’s first necessary to understand what a QR code is.
QR Codes Are The Ketchup of Marketing
Does anyone eat a bowl of ketchup for dinner? No one I know. Clearly ketchup is not a meal in itself, but it does taste great ON many things. The same is true with QR codes. Not only do they need to be placed ON things; they need to be placed on the RIGHT things.
So we know that ketchup doesn’t taste good on everything, but we still don’t know what a QR code is.
Okay, here it is.. it’s a link.
But it’s not a link that you click on, it’s a link that you take a picture of. Bearing that in mind, it’s very important to understand where NOT to put QR codes. For example, putting one on your website tastes a little like ketchup on your breakfast cereal. Not good.
Why don’t they taste good on your website? I’ll answer that with another question – which would you rather do? Take a picture with your mobile phone of a qr code that you see on the monitor of your desktop computer (just a little awkward), or would you rather just click on a link with your mouse?
Get the “picture“? (pun intended)
So where do QR codes taste good?
One of the best places to put a QR code is on a business card. Compared to ketchup, this ranks right up there with hotdogs and hamburgers. But where should the QR code link to? We recommend linking it to a reviews site such a yelp, CitySearch, google+, or kudzu so that your current patients can easily leave reviews for your practice. One thing to keep in mind, however, is the user experience. Ideally, the link should go to a mobile optimized website since anyone using a QR code will also be using a mobile device. Fortunately yelp, google+ and most other review sites either have a mobile optimized version of their site, or else an actual mobile app.
In today’s marketplace, your business card definitely deserves a little ketchup.. er QR code on it.
Leave a Reply